text: Protein expression in levitated cultures shows striking similarity to in-vivo patterns. N-cadherin expression in levitated human glioblastoma cells was identical to the expression seen in human tumor xenografts grown in immunodeficient mice, while standard 2D culture showed much weaker expression that did not match xenograft distribution as shown in the picture below. The transmembrane protein N-cadherin is often used as an indicator of in-vivo-like tissue assembly in 3D culturing.
  The above picture shows the distribution of N-cadherin (red) and nuclei (blue) in human brain cancer mouse xenograft (left, human brain cancer cells grown in a mouse brain), brain cancer cells cultured by 3D magnetic levitation for 48 h. (middle), and cells cultured on a glass slide cover slip (2D, right). The 2D system shows N-cadherin in the cytoplasm and nucleus and notably absent from the membrane, while in the levitated culture and mouse, N-cadherin is clearly concentrated in the membrane, and also present in cytoplasm and cell junctions.